Chapter 20
I
had to admit it, J. Love and I put the awesome in awesomeness. Alone, I was fabulous; together, J. and I took fabulousity to a whole other level. Too bad I was in love with someone else. J. Love could proclaim his love for me all he wanted. My heart was somewhere else. And tonight, I was simply playing a role.
The studio had laid everything out. We were filming on South Beach today and one of the scenes called for me to rock a bikini. But I told them I didn't do hoochie because the last thing I wanted was to be lumped into the same category as all these video vixens around here so they'd settled on a sexy sundress.
A woman who looked like she was somebody's assistant approached us as we walked into the studio. “Good afternoon. Right this way, Mr. Love, Miss Morgan,” she said.
We followed the woman inside the huge building, which looked like it used to be an old warehouse. But it had been updated with all modern décor. People scurried around, setting up lights, barking orders, and moving equipment. Several dancers were in a corner, rehearsing. I was feeling the whole vibe.
The woman led us down a long, concrete hallway. She stopped in front of an oversized dressing room. “You gon' be all right?” J. Love asked me.
I nodded. “I'm a big girl,” I told him. “And I'm not new to this.”
Just then, an Amazon of a woman with a wild honey-blond afro approached us. She looked like she was in desperate need of a grilled cheese sandwich or something, she was so skinny. Even still, she was stunning and looked like she needed to be on a Paris runway.
“Hey, I'm Charlie Rose. I'll be doing your makeup,” she said.
“
The
Charlie Rose?” I asked, shaking her hand. Charlie Rose was one of the best makeup artists and stylists in the business. She'd been the stylist for everyone from Oprah to Beyoncé.
“The one and only,” she said with a pleasant smile.
“Didn't I hear that you had been swept away to Milan?” I asked.
“Honey, they swept me right back.” She giggled. “They wanted nothing but the best for Mr. Love here.”
“And she's definitely the best so hook her up right.” J. leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “I'm gonna go get ready myself.”
He headed out and Charlie patted the chair in front of a long floor-to-ceiling mirror. “All right, let's get you started. Karli is going to work on your hair,” she said, motioning to the lady adjusting several curling irons on a table.
“Hi, Karli, do your thing,” I said, sitting in the chair.
I sat down and an hour later, I emerged with full fabulous curls, makeup to die for, a tight royal-blue spaghetti-strapped jumper and my Louboutins.
I made a memo to myself that the station would need to fly Charlie in for special events for me because this girl was bad.
“Dang, I didn't know you could improve upon beauty,” J. said once I approached the set. He looked amazing in a plain white tee with a blinged-out design, a black Armani blazer, and baggy jeans.
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The shoot took a while because we had to shoot and reshoot scenes over and over. J. was doing an extended version with a storyline. I was the scorned lover who he didn't appreciate until I was gone. It was exhausting work, but I had so much fun.
By the time the crew started wrapping up, I was still hyped. J. Love met me in my dressing room. “So, how was it?” he asked.
“It was everything!” I replied, slipping my Louboutins off.
“Yeah, it can be grueling doing the same thing over and over, but I love it,” J. replied. “And wait till you see the end results. Hype is no joke,” he said, referring to the director.
“I can tell,” I replied.
“Guess what, though?”
“What?”
“Hype loves you and wants to talk to you about casting you in this new movie that he's directing and I'm starring in.”
“Movie?”
“Yeah, I told you. Stick with me and we'll conquer the world!”
I laughed. “I would love to do a movie, so I'd definitely have to talk with him about that later.” I held up my shoes. “Hey, so what do you want me to do with the shoes?”
“They're yours.”
“Oh, wow, I get to keep them?”
“Girl, don't nobody want to walk after you,” he joked.
“Whatever. My toes are cute.” I wiggled my foot.
“They sure are.” He looked at me all sexy for a minute, then relaxed and said, “We're all going out to celebrate. So, let's go.”
I glanced down at my phone and saw two texts from Alvin. It was late, but I'd promised him that I would swing by his place after the shoot.
“I, um, kinda have plans,” I stammered.
J. looked at me like I was crazy. “Plans? Girl, we just wrapped an award-winning video shoot in one day. That's cause for celebration. We got to go have some fun.”
Before I could reply, my phone rang. I looked down and saw Alvin's number. “This is my boyfriend.”
J. didn't seem fazed. “Okay, and? Tell him you're still at work. Tell him the shoot is running long if you don't want to tell him you're going out.”
“I don't like lying.”
“Oh, come on, Maya. Really?”
J. Love was right. I was ready to relax, let my hair down and have a good time. I could hang out with Alvin any time.
I sighed and answered on the last ring before it went to voice mail. “Hey,” I said.
“Hey, you. How are things going?” Alvin asked.
“It's going well.”
“I was wondering if you were wrapping up. I was hoping we could still meet up. I can come there and we can go grab a late dinner or something.”
I eyed J. Love, who was standing there like he had no plans to move. I turned my back to him and lowered my voice. “Yeah, um, I think it's going to take us a lot longer than I expected. We're nowhere near finished.” I actually felt awful lying to Alvin, but “Hey, I'm going to party with my ex and his crew” didn't sound like it would fly.
Alvin was quiet. “Oh, okay.”
“So, I'll just catch up with you tomorrow,” I said. “Okay?”
More silence. “All right. Good night,” he finally said. “I love you.”
I looked back over my shoulder at J. Love. “Me, too,” I responded.
I hung up the phone and turned back to J. He was standing there with a stupid grin on his face.
“You might not like lying, but you sure are good at it.”
My mouth dropped open. But before I could say anything else, he said, “Girl, chill, I'm just messing with you. Come on, let's go have a great time!” He grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door.
Chapter 21
“G
o, Maya, it's your birthday! You gonna party like it's your birthday!”
The crowd chanted while I did something I never in a million years thought I'd be caught dead doingâtwerking. And not just regular twerking, I'm talking Rihanna, Miley, and Beyoncé rolled up into one.
“Okay, okay,” I said, the minute I noticed someone with a camera phone. “I'm done.”
J. Love turned to the guy filming, one of the dancers from his crew. “Man, put that camera up! We trying to just have a good time.”
“See, this is why I sit over here, minding my business,” I said as I walked off the dance floor.
“Awww, come on,” J. said, pulling me back to him. “I shut him down. We're having a good time. Don't ruin it.”
“Tell your boys don't be filming me. I don't want to end up twerking on WorldStarHipHop,” I snapped.
Just then, the music slowed and Trey Songz's “Heart Attack” filled the room. I tensed up as J. Love pulled me close to him to slow dance.
“You don't want to dance with me?” he asked when he noticed how stiff I was.
“J. . . .”
“Just relax,” he said. “We're just dancing.”
I took a deep breath, then laid my head on his shoulder. I couldn't help it. It felt good to be so close to J., so when he squeezed me tighter, I squeezed him back.
“You know, I really enjoyed seeing you let your hair down,” he whispered. “You don't do that enough.”
“I have an image to maintain.”
“So do I. And together, we look like two celebrities having fun. That's all. No big deal.”
“I did have a good time tonight,” I said. “Except for that wine cooler.”
He let out a small laugh. I had finally broken down and let J. talk me into drinking a wine cooler. And it had me buzzing, a feeling I did not like.
I actually had been completely against it, but I'd gotten caught up in the moment, with all the fun we were having.
“So, Maya Morgan, are you really happy with nerd dude?” he asked me as we slowly swayed back and forth.
“Nerd dude's name is Alvin, and why did you ask me that?”
“I just asked a question.”
“Alvin is a good guy.”
He stopped, pulled back and looked me in the eye. “That's not what I asked you. Are you happy?”
I thought for a minute, then said, “I am.”
He didn't crack a smile as he said, “Then why are you here with me?”
That made me stop swaying and I took a step back.
He pulled me back toward him. “You know I keep it real. You are here because you're feeling me, just like I'm feeling you. Maya, we are good together.”
“We tried that already, J.,” I said.
“Yeah, and I messed up. I thought you had sold me out to the tabloid and I just screwed up. I need you to give me another chance.”
“I can't, because I'm with someone.”
“So, you said.”
“So, I am.”
“Okay, cool then.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Just like that?” J. Love didn't give up on anything that easy.
He pulled me back to him to finish our dance. “I don't believe in harassing anyone, but you will be mine. In the meantime,” he continued, “we're just going to relax and have a good time.” He eased my head back down on his chest and I closed my eyes and savored the moment.
The flash of a bulb caused me to jolt up. A photographer was zoomed in on us, snapping away.
“Man, get them out of here!” J. yelled to his bodyguard.
“Dang,” I said, huffing because I didn't want any pictures.
“You know that's the price of fame.” J. shrugged. “But tonight, I just want to enjoy my time with you before we have to return to reality and I have to return you to your man. Because you know he's only borrowing you right now.”
“Whatever, J.” I told myself that he was only kidding, but for some reason, the feeling in the pit of my stomach told me that he wasn't.
Chapter 22
T
he ringing phone blared, startling me out of my sleep. I fumbled on my nightstand, grabbed my phone, and put it to my ear.
“Hello,” I mumbled. I had no idea what time it was, but the sun was peeking in through my closed blinds.
“Must've been a long night.”
“Oh, hey, Alvin,” I said, rolling over on my back. I massaged my temple. How could one wine cooler make my head hurt so bad?
“Your video shoot ran long, huh?”
“Yeah, yeah.” I tried to focus while struggling to hold in my groan. See, this was exactly why I didn't drink. Who wanted this awful feeling?
I put my hand over my eyes. “It ran a lot longer than I thought it was going to.”
“That's funny because it looked like to me you wrapped up pretty early, then went out to celebrate.”
“Huh?” That woke me up and I bolted right up in my bed.
“Yeah, you know, you told me you weren't anywhere near finished at nine o'clock. But at nine-forty-five, I see pictures all on Instagram.”
“Wh-what?” I knew that we had taken a lot of pics last night, but Alvin wasn't even on Instagram.
“Oh, so now you don't know what I'm talking about?” I could hear the attitude all up in his voice.
“Alvin, why are you calling me this early tripping?”
“First of all, it's not early. It's noon. Secondly, I'm not trippin'. I just can't appreciate being lied to.”
I didn't know what to say, so I just said, “I didn't lie. We just wrapped everything up and went and hung out.”
“So you wrapped everything up minutes after talking to me?”
I was fully awake now. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and moved the phone to my other ear. “Seriously, Alvin?”
“I'm just saying, when I talked to you, you said you guys were going to be there all night.”
I sat on the edge of my bed and massaged my temples some more. My head was throbbing and Alvin was making it worse.
“What is this, the third degree?” I snapped. “And now you're checking up on me on Instagram? You don't even have an account, so what? Did you log onto someone else's account to try and spy on me?”
“I didn't need to,” he replied. “Someone saw it on Instagram and sent it to me.”
“Why is somebody worried about what I'm doing? Who was it?”
His silence was my answer. That couldn't be anyone but his whack, desperate ex-girlfriend, Marisol.
“Tell your ex to get out of my business before I have her thrown back in jail,” I said.
“I'm not concerned about Marisol. I'm concerned about my girl. Who lied to me and said she was working when she was really out kickin' it with another dude.”
“I wasn't kickin' it with another dude,” I said. “I was with a bunch of people from the set.”
“Whatever, Maya. I saw the picture. Dude was all over you.”
I let out a heavy sigh. “You know that's for the camera.”
He huffed. “No, I don't know anything, except I told you that I'm getting real tired of this.”
“When did you become such a drag?” I huffed. “You never used to trip like this.”
“Because I never used to be disrespected. I don't know if you think being a nerd, as your friends call me, makes me weak, but I'm not the one.”
I wanted to scream. “Nobody said you were weak, Alvin. Geez!”
“Keep on playing me if you want to, Maya. I am a nice guy, but don't push me.”
Before I could reply, he slammed the phone down.
First, J. Love had hung up on me, now Alvin. Tamara was right, I was starting to think I wasn't cut out for this relationship stuff.